help!!! what on earth (haha) do i put in synscan in the summer?!?! ((UK))

[willcastle]

okay so do i put the time zone as +01.00 as it is BST and set it to DLT >YES< as it is summer....

or do i put it in as +0.00 and DLT as >YES< ???

i find this confusing as if u say its BST and DLT is it effectively +2 hours? someone help please stupid england with 2 time zones!!

thanks,

Will

[Capricorn]

Time zone is 0, DST is Yes.

[Capricorn]

In effect you put in the actual timezone you are in and you input the actual time that you are using.

Do not try to make it up and do your own compensation, something will go wrong, and then asking what is not right is a bit pointless as the answer would be everything.

[willcastle]

you definitely sure? im not making up a time zone! england is in BST during the summer! which is +1, hence my confusion.

[willcastle]

plllleease confirm someone? wanna get out there tonight!!

[Cornelius Varley]

The time is whatever it says on your watch, the time zone is 0.00 and DST is Yes.

Peter

[TheThing]

As Capricorn says. The handset needs to convert to UTC time, so you put in the actual time, the time zone as '0' and daylight saving to Yes.

TheThing

[willcastle]

i love this website! thank you all!

[Markinaboat]

Sorry to get into an old thread but the subject is so specific to my issue. I put in 0:00 for the time zone as per the appendices in the synscan manual. If I select YES to daylight saving, the scope points an hour behind. If I select NO it's spot on! Date format, lat & long all correct. I use polaralign on my iPhone as 'inverted' but the synscan gives the HA/LST differently to what's displayed on the polaralign app.

Confused! Is it a software fault?

Cheers

Mark

Ps. Where were the persids last night!?

[ronin]

The scope operates on UTC or the offset defined by the timezone to UTC.

As we are on the real UTC timezone (GMT if you like) then you enter o or UTC for the timezone, you then enter the time which is WITH DST applied and say Yes to DST.

The scope software simply say this person/scope is in the 0 timezone at 10:00 local time but they are in DST so the real UTC time is 9:00.

An alternative, but just makes it difficult, is to say the timezone is 0 or UTC and give it the UTC (GMT) time and that would be with NO DST applied so DST is then No. But it just is not worth it. I have a mobile that is still running on GMT.

Do not change the timezone!

If you do that then when the clocks go back you are stuffed, or you have to redo the location all over again and reenter from scratch. If you forget then you can not get the right time in the scope. This is because with DST the scope is able to deduct the hour. If however you set the next timezone round then it cannot, and your time will therefore be incorrect.

The "problem" is simple, the scope wants UTC/GMT time and the software takes care of that for you. So you tell it the time as per watch and tell it that DST is applied and the scope does it.

[tekkydave]

I think of the timezone as being geographical - it is where you are on the planet and doesn't change.

[Markinaboat]

Thanks for your reply Ronin but I don't think you grasped what I was saying.

I DID indeed leave the time zone set to 0 (it's easy to see on the appendix map that the UK is in time zone 0).

I DID set to DST.

The result was that the alignment was out by 1 hour.

I then rebooted and set DST to 'NO' and the alignment worked spot on!

Can you explain that? as mentioned, all other data required was entered 100% correctly!

Thanks

[Markinaboat]

Dave,

The time zone does indeed change depending on your geographic location. This is from the manual:

http://www.manualslib.com/manual/110996/Nexstar-Synscan.html?page=22#manual

[tekkydave]

Dave,

The time zone does indeed change depending on your geographic location. This is from the manual:

http://www.manualslib.com/manual/110996/Nexstar-Synscan.html?page=22#manual

I meant it doesn't change for a specific location. If I'm in the UK I will always be in zone 0. The scope software is expecting you to put in the local time always. The DST setting tells it whether the time you have entered is shifted by daylight saving or not so it can work out the true time for the time zone you are in.

[Cornelius Varley]

Thanks for your reply Ronin but I don't think you grasped what I was saying.

I DID indeed leave the time zone set to 0 (it's easy to see on the appendix map that the UK is in time zone 0).

I DID set to DST.

The result was that the alignment was out by 1 hour.

I then rebooted and set DST to 'NO' and the alignment worked spot on!

Can you explain that? as mentioned, all other data required was entered 100% correctly!

Thanks

I suspect that could be something wrong with the location / time / date.

Your location coordinates should be something similar to 000 23 W 51 31 N (and in that format and order), date is in the American format mm/dd/yyyy , time is in 24 hr format, time 0.000 and DST is yes.

[dph1nm]

I put in 0:00 for the time zone as per the appendices in the synscan manual. If I select YES to daylight saving, the scope points an hour behind.

In what sense? After setting the time you have to align the scope before you can start observing- in principle it could be pointing anywhere when you switch it on.  To get it to point without aligning you would have to have excellent polar alignment and the scope perfectly in the home position (almost impossible by eye).

NigelM

[Markinaboat]

Hi Nigel,

After all correct data is input, I choose 3 star alignment. It recommends Arcturus for the first star which is perfect at the moment which I select. It slews to a point in the sky that would correspond to where Arcturus was around an hour earlier. I then do the same for 2nd and 3rd stars and it also pints to where they may have been an hour earlier. As a result, after trying various settings, triple-checking, using polaralign to correclt place Polaris (in case I was going mad..der), I decided to reset up but this time selecting 'NO' to the daylight saving prompt. The scope slewed to all three chosen stars with the usual minor manual adjustment to bring them into the centre of view. I then spent several hours goto'ing!

Clearly, it's a software (databse) issue.

[Cornelius Varley]

After the first star alignment do you recentre the star ? The handset slews the mount to where it believes the first alignment star is based upon the data given and the home position. Something else to try is enter all the data correctly, including time and DST, do a 1 star alignment and wherever the mount slews to unlock the clutches and manually centre the eyepiece onto the star. Relock the clutches, press enter and then park the telescope. When the mount has slewed back to the parked position switch off, unlock the clutches again and manually set the mount back to the correct parked position. Relock the clutches and restart doing a normal star alignment.

[Markinaboat]

The initial problem was that the scope would be pointing in a completely wrong direction when it slews to the star to be aligned upon. As mentioned, I only centred the star (which was only a third off centre at most), I then repeated the same with the further two aligned (slewed to) stars after the first (correct) alignment on the first aligned star. The home position in this case was dictated by being correctly lined up on Polaris. I switched off and reset completely at each attempt to solve the problem.

I'm beginning to regret posting this now! :-)

[Markinaboat]

Sorry Peter, hit enter before I'd finished.

When you say unlock the clutches, do you mean the Az/Rt asc clutch only as the Alt is obviously correctly set for the Lat?

[tekkydave]

Hi Nigel,

After all correct data is input, I choose 3 star alignment. It recommends Arcturus for the first star which is perfect at the moment which I select. It slews to a point in the sky that would correspond to where Arcturus was around an hour earlier. I then do the same for 2nd and 3rd stars and it also pints to where they may have been an hour earlier. As a result, after trying various settings, triple-checking, using polaralign to correclt place Polaris (in case I was going mad..der), I decided to reset up but this time selecting 'NO' to the daylight saving prompt. The scope slewed to all three chosen stars with the usual minor manual adjustment to bring them into the centre of view. I then spent several hours goto'ing!

Clearly, it's a software (databse) issue.

Why are you surprised that the stars have moved across the sky by an hour - we all put our watches forward in the spring by an hour. I suspect the scope is remembering its 'winter' alignment and you are having to pretend to it that it is still winter in order to keep the same approximate alignment. If you enter the following and YOU tell IT where the stars are not the reverse it will work:

Time zone = 0

Time = current time by your watch

DST = YES

I bet if you do this the next time you power on the scope the stars will be roughly where the scope expects. In the autumn when the clocks go back enter the same details but set DST = NO. The stars will be shifted by an hour but when you set the alignment they will be in the right place again.

[Markinaboat]

Why are you surprised that the stars have moved across the sky by an hour - we all put our watches forward in the spring by an hour. I suspect the scope is remembering its 'winter' alignment and you are having to pretend to it that it is still winter in order to keep the same approximate alignment. If you enter the following and YOU tell IT where the stars are not the reverse it will work:

Time zone = 0

Time = current time by your watch

DST = YES

I bet if you do this the next time you power on the scope the stars will be roughly where the scope expects. In the autumn when the clocks go back enter the same details but set DST = NO. The stars will be shifted by an hour but when you set the alignment they will be in the right place again.

Dave, the whole point of my posting this issue was because I did exactly as you decsribed which is the only correct way to do it. To me, it's straightforward. If you read up, you'll see that I did select YES to DST but it only worked when I selected NO to DST...WITH teh CORRECT current time AND set to time zone 0! The plot thickens!

[Cornelius Varley]

When the mount slews to the first star it is invariably out, you would be very lucky to get the alignment star in the centre of the eyepiece. If you go through the 1 star alignment and park routine, as I suggested, you should find that the first alignment slew should be more accurate.

[Markinaboat]

I know they are always out to some degree, but not pointing to a completely different part of the sky! which DST set to 'NO' corrects.

[ollypenrice]

This is all quite odd. I suppose you may have a bug. 

Once you have selected your first alignment star and done an (inaccurate) first Go To, you centre the star in the target and press Enter. Is this so? At this point the mount's relationship with the sky should be re-orientated and, however inaccurate the first slew, the rest should be far better. But you say no, the slews continue to look as if they they are an hour away in RA. I've never seen this and have two EQ sixes and an Avalon running Synscan. The first correct alignment input at the first slew always produces decent GoTo thereafter, remarkably good, in fact.

I suspect that your handset buttons may not be be communicating with the software on occasion, but who knows?

Olly